A-b-e Withdraws Application For Runway Grant

October 02, 1992|by MARTIN PFLIEGER, The Morning Call

Allentown-Bethlehem-Easton Airport has temporarily withdrawn an application for federal funds to buy land for a runway because the document was hastily prepared and premature, according to the airport chief.

The application, submitted to the Federal Aviation Administration Sept. 15, has angered some municipal officials who termed it inaccurate.

In the application, A-B-E Executive Director George Doughty claimed the proposed runway had been discussed with airport users and local governments.

Not all local officials had been briefed on the plan before the application was submitted, East Allen Township Supervisor Charles Kerchner said.

Airport officials have been meeting with the public and local government officials in recent weeks to explain the expansion. At least two public meetings are scheduled this month.

The application also claims the airport and nearby municipalities have been cooperating in land use planning to limit the impact of airport noise on nearby communities. Kerchner said that implies that the townships agree with the expansion.

That implication is not true, Kerchner said.

"We feel the airport has kept this under wraps for the past year and a half," he said.

The application was hurriedly done, Doughty said, and he didn't expect the FAA to fund the work.

"The only purpose of it," Doughty said, "... was simply to get dollar numbers in front of the FAA so they were on notice that there would be a request from us at some point for a substantial amount of money. Because the pre-application work requires coordination, and we've not completed that with the counties, it was probably premature to get it to (the FAA)."

Withdrawing the application will also allow the FAA to concentrate on the funding applications the airport submitted for the $18.5 million expansion of the passenger terminal. That work is expected to be done in the next two years.

Airport officials estimated they would need a $4.3 million grant to help buy 178 acres north of the airport to build a 6,000-foot runway.

The airport and the state would kick in $237,250 each, bringing the total estimated cost of buying the land and six single-family homes to $4.75 million, according to the application.

The application dealt strictly with the land needed for the runway and not land the airport wants to buy as a buffer against noise.